OBS Nature Appreciation Programme – Ubin Trail

The March one week school holiday break is a good time for the children, teenagers to have a good break and rest from their studies. This school holiday break is ideal for outdoors activities for the young adults, teenagers, young children and their families too. During the March 2016 holiday break, Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) organised a number of nature appreciation programme from 14th to 18th March 2016, there were all interesting and I managed to set aside time to join one of their nature appreciation programme, the Ubin Trail. The Ubin trail is a short, interesting, interactive and experiential nature walk, covering aspects of Ubin’s history, geography and ecology. The Ubin trail is very experiential in nature, with participants learning through sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

We boarded the boat service from Punggol End jetty to OBS, it was a short ferry ride across the sea from mainland Singapore. Upon reaching OBS, I took a good look at the OBS facilities because this was my first time to OBS! Thereafter, we went into one of the training rooms for a short introduction and briefing on the Ubin Trail programme. At the training room, I was surprised to see a friend, Hang Chong, it was good to see him again! During our chat, I got to know that he would be one of the two instructors for the Ubin Trail. Immediately, I knew that the participants will be in good hands because Hang Chong is very experienced and knowledgable in nature and conservation. The other instructor is Mr Wong, very knowledgable and experienced in nature and conservation too!

After the introduction and briefing, the participants were split into two equal size groups. Since I knew Hang Chong personally, I decided to follow his group, consisting of a mix of teenagers, young children and their parents. The Ubin Trail was indeed experiential, the group had a number of hands on learning, through looking, hearing, smelling and touching the natural surroundings. Hang Chong was really awesome with the young children, they were attentive, participating and asking Hang Chong many questions on nature and conservation. From learning about the mangrove swamp, its importance and significance to finding rubber trees, tapping the rubber trees to see the sap flowing out from the tree bark, spotting spiders, civet cat poo and wild mushrooms, listening to the birds chirping inside the forest area. It was indeed an experiential nature experience for the group of teenagers, young children and their parents.

Around 2 hours of experiential Ubin Trail, the group headed back to OBS grounds, into the training room for a short debrief session. This was the time for a rest and tea break, to mingle and chat with friends. Being an outdoors person myself, it felt good to be back in the outdoors, enjoying the peace and tranquility of the nature and outdoors.

The Ubin Trail, is just one of the Nature Appreciation programmes organised by OBS for the school holidays. For parents with young children and teenagers, the Nature Appreciation programmes for the school holidays are definitely something to look out for, join in, participate and enjoy outdoors/nature activities! Keep a lookout for OBS events and programmes on their website! Here are some of the photographs that I took during Ubin Trail, go check them out on my Flickr photography collection!

I would like to thank OBS and NYC for inviting me along for the Ubin Trail programme, it was great, fun and enjoyable to be back in the outdoors, along with a mix group of teenagers, young children and their parents!